


I Know Your Name As My Child

by LibraryMage



Category: Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Adoption, Autistic Character, Autistic Sabine, Father-Daughter Relationship, Found Family, Gen, Mother-Daughter Relationship, Past Child Abandonment
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-01
Updated: 2017-03-01
Packaged: 2018-09-27 16:44:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10034063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LibraryMage/pseuds/LibraryMage
Summary: Sabine's parents officially adopt her.Content warning for discussion of past child abandonment.





	

“Are you okay?”

Sabine jumped at the sound of Hera’s voice.  She’d been so absorbed in her thoughts as she was recalibrating the sights on the tail gun that she hadn’t heard the pilot’s footsteps.

“I'm fine,” she said.  A lie.

“You’ve just seemed out of it all day,” Hera explained.  “I wanted to ask you earlier, but --”  She didn’t have to finish the sentence.  Privacy was not easy to come by on a small ship with four crew members and a nosy astromech.

Sabine’s only response was a shrug.

“If you ever want to talk about it,” Hera said, “whatever it is, you can talk to me.”  Sabine nodded.  Hera took the hint and started to walk away.  Suddenly, Sabine couldn’t hold it back.

“It’s just a bad day for me,” she said.  Hera turned around and walked back to where Sabine stood.  Sabine folded her arms across her chest and stared down at the floor.  “I just -- I miss my mother.”  The last four words were mumbled, like she was embarrassed by them.

Hera gently rested her hand on Sabine’s arm.

“I'm sorry,” she said.  “I know that barely means anything, but I am.”  She hesitated for a second before she kept talking.  “The Empire killed my mother, too,” she said.  “I know how hard it is, how _empty_ it makes you feel.”

Sabine shook her head.  “Mine isn’t dead,” she said.  “She --”  Sabine clenched her teeth, cutting herself off.  But now that she’d started, she made herself choke out the words.  “She abandoned me.”

Hera saw the girl’s brown eyes gloss over like she was holding back tears.  Hera reached for something to say, but before she could, Sabine was speaking again.

“That’s why it’s a bad day,” Sabine said.  “I -- I miss her, but I know I shouldn’t.  Because she’s not -- she’s not my mother, not really.  She made that clear.”  Sabine’s fingers tightened on her arms, her nails digging into her skin.

Hera couldn’t stop herself (not that she wanted to) from throwing her arms around Sabine and pulling her close.  Sabine stiffened for a moment and then her shoulders drooped as she let herself lean into Hera’s embrace.

“It’s okay, Sabine,” Hera said.  “I know it doesn’t make sense, and I know it hurts, but it’s okay to miss her even after what she did.  You’re not doing anything wrong.”

Sabine didn’t say anything, but her arms dropped to her sides and slowly, she returned Hera’s hug.

Hera felt something in her chest, an impulse, and maybe it would blow up in her face, but she followed it anyway.

“Ni kyr’tayl gai sa’ad, Sabine,” she whispered.

Sabine pulled away, looking up at Hera’s face like she couldn’t believe what she’d just said.  Sabine shook her head and brushed a tear from her cheek.

“You don’t mean that,” she said.

“Yes, I do,” Hera told her.  “And I always will.”

Sabine threw herself back into Hera’s arms.  All her words were gone and she could only say what she wanted to say by holding onto Hera as tight as she could.  This didn’t fix Sabine’s anger toward her birth mother or her anger at herself by any means, but it felt so _good_ to have a mother again.  One who really wanted her, who _chose_ her.  And it felt _right_ that it was Hera.

Hera put her arms around Sabine again and felt something warm rise in her chest as she held her new daughter.

* * *

 

“I am so --”

“Do _not_ say you’re proud of me,” Sabine said, cutting Kanan off.  She knew if he said it, she wouldn’t be able to leave.

“Me?” Kanan said with a smile.  “Never.  But I am going to miss you.”

Sabine rushed forward and hugged Kanan, leaning her forehead against his chest.  He seemed startled at first, but hugged her back.  Sabine closed her eyes and for a second, she tried to let herself think she was back on the _Ghost_ and she wasn’t going anywhere.

She felt Kanan lean down a little and heard his voice in her ear, so quiet even Ezra probably couldn’t hear it.

“Ni kyr’tayl gai sa’ad, Sabine.”

Her arms tightened around him just a little.  She’d thought of Kanan as her father for a long time, almost as long as she’d thought of Hera as her mother, but now it was real, official, and he was acknowledging it, too.

Finally, she made herself pull away from him, before she lost her nerve and decided to leave with him and Ezra.

“Come back to us,” Kanan said.

“I will, Buir,” she said.  “I promise.”

**Author's Note:**

> "Ni kyr'tayl gai sa'ad" is the Mando'a adoption vow from the Legends continuity, said from an adoptive parent to child. It translates as "I know your name as my child."
> 
> "Buir" is the Mando'a word for "mother" or "father."


End file.
